137 Responses

I was eight, I think, when I appeared on stage for the first time – a tiny cameo in The Visit. I don't remember much about the play, except an air of grim creepiness and a sound effect of a panther which I might be imagining.

Do you have an unexplained deep-seated aversion to yellow shoes by any chance?

So was I and I use it as an excuse for everything. What a nice piece of writing. I went on a course recently that involved a lot of public speaking and it reminded me very much of my weird old parents. I though nothing of it when I was emailed a picture the other day of my dad in a clown costume with a picture frame hanging around his neck.

By the time Mum was one of the mad murdering sisters in Arsenic and Old Lace

Okay, to be fair, I think actor superstition is more like 'it's bad luck to get caught boffing your co-star's understudy'.

That's meant to be BAD luck? I always found that pretty freakin' lucky! (although I guess not the getting caught part)

But I have a similar story, in some ways. Not raised by actors, but raised by people who appreciated theatre, and fell in love with it from an early age. Did everything and anything I could from about the age of 4, including writing/directing/starring in my own plays at primary school. I too cannot understand how people cannot understand Shakespeare. Even went as far as setting up a theatre company when I was at uni.

But I also came to the same realisation as you - that I'm actually not a very good actor. I'm sure I could have gotten by, getting small roles here and there, because there are plenty of people who aren't very good actors who make it based on passion. But I made my decision to step away, and haven't really regretted it for a moment since. I miss the atmosphere, the cameraderie, the excitement, to be sure... but I never felt bad about coming to that decision, and moving on.

(I still dream about going back and directing - Richard III is always calling to me from the back of my mind)

This reminds me that the Shakespeare Club at my high school, they were the smartest and (secretly) filthiest kids.

LOL I remember a friend of mine whose parents didn't usually let her go to parties - but Shakespeare Society parties were considered OK. I don't think they ever clicked.

Also, +1 for loving acting at school but being bad at it - although I did have a reasonable gift for remembering screeds of lines and regurgitating them slowly and clearly, which is often handy in Shakespeare.

I suppose getting dressed and undressed constantly would make it all seem pretty natural, although not necessarily to observers. I have a high tolerance for being seen disrobed, having been a swimmer for years, but other people can get quite distressed by this. Togs turn to undies pretty quick, it seems.

Another +1 for retiring from stage at an early age. Mum in many many musicals, Grandad sang on the radio, other side Grandparents all over the Gisborne stage. Me & my sister - animals run when we break out the singstar. Mum also did the males makeup for years at reperatory. Our house smelled of greasepaint & coldcream for weeks while shows were on. Hanging out backstage & helping with props was a great excuse to be able to stay out late with the actors.

On the whole thing of being self-conscious, acting is a sure-fire cure. For my recent birthday, a couple of (male) friends got their girlfriends to go and buy me a bra (coral pink, 14A) as a joke gift. The males were, apparently, very concerned that I might be offended by the gift. When I heard this from one of the purchasing women, I told her that she should've bet them $50 each as to whether or not I'd put it on. She would've won $100 on that one, given that I did indeed put it on. In the middle of a crowded New Lynn restaurant.When I advised another friend about the concern, she said that her bet would've been as to whether I'd put it on properly, or put it on my head.

Do you get a point for being raised in the theatre and staying with it?

And will sandbags really fall on your head if you whistle at the wrong time?

Probably not any more, but in the early days fly tower cues were called through a series of whistles, so if you whistled when you were backstage a sandbag may well have been dropped on you. This wouldn't have been a deliberate act, just people doing what they were told.